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What are you meant to think of Syria and President Assad when the mainstream media constantly supplies reports and interviews and content that explicitly states that Assad “bombs his own people” that “Assad must go” and that “Assad is using chemical weapons”?

You would be forgiven for thinking that the US, UK and Western powers are doing the world a huge favour and helping the people of the Middle East. You would also be forgiven for thinking that Russia and Syria’s other allies are just as guilty and are a threat to the world.

It should be made clear that Russia has its own agenda in the region largely for Geopolitical reasons and it should be made clear that Assad has been guilty of terrible indiscriminate attacks against people in Syria. What isn’t made clear though is the other side of the story. You know full well there are two sides to every story and it’s not until you seek to learn of the other side that you could ever hope to make an informed decision.

This post is a series of videos that will make you think again about what you see and hear every day on your TV screens and radios. We will provide an explanation to each video.

Firstly, if you missed it, below is the compilation, an overview.

UNHCR: The Video below alone is telling. Presented by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees you would think they know more than most about how the Syrians see their home country. With what we hear in the mainstream press you might be expecting them to, yes, say they want to go home, but somewhere in there you might expect them to at least be neutral on how good life was back in Syria. What they say presents a different picture to the one painted on TV. That of a despotic leader killing his own people and being too authoritarian. What happened to their uprising?

What about a few years prior to the uprising? How did these Syrian women speak of their home country and the way of life there?

Just a year after the outbreak of war these two Syrian women seem to know exactly what is going on and why. The girl on the right is known as ‘Syrian Girl’ and has repeatedly commented on the conflict. Her YouTube videos are extensive.

By and large the people conducting the uprising at the beggining were likely the various sects of Sunni Islam. They certainly would not have been Alawite. The Syria conflict in many ways is a battle of ideologies. You just have to decide if you would rather Assad held it together or allow extemists like Al Nusra to take over. Holding any kind of extreme view in Syria is likely frowned upon as Assad tries to run a secular society so you would think in some ways the West would have liked to have had Assad as an ally, not an enemy. A few years ago that was essentially true as Tony Blair almost knighted Assad with a recommendation to the Queen.

The next couple of videos from Vox and Le Monde explain how the Syrian crisis came about. We actually don’t agree with everything said in these videos but it does highlight the role of Western and indeed Eastern powers in the war and what stake they have in Syria. One of the key aspects to take away from the videos is how the popular uprising was infiltrated by rebels from across the Middle East. Well, rebels is what the West has called them and it’s what you have been led to believe they are. The truth is the fact that all of these groups are in any other scenario, terrorists, and the US and others have been arming them and training them, by their own admission.

In fact imagine the scenario. There you are, President of Syria, you have ruled over a peaceful nation for many years. A rarity in that you have a secular nation. One of the last remaining secular countries in the region surrounded by extremists and ideologies from all sides of the Muslim faith. An uprising could lead to what happened in Libya, Afghanistan and of course Iraq and currently Yemen. Would you not do everything in your power to suppress a destabilising uprising? This is not to defend Assad, more to provide reasoning for his actions. If you doubt the veracity of that explanation just turn on your TV or open a newspaper and ask yourself.. are Iraqis and Libyans currently better off without their leaders Saddam Hussein and Colonel Gadaffi respectively?

It may be that you don’t believe that some of these rebel groups are all that bad. Al Nusra a proscribed terror group and the Syrian network for Al Qaeda are currently fighting in Syria. Recently they changed their name to the JFS and dropped some of their public facing extreme ideologies to help Unite the varying groups in Syria against Assad, but the US in particular are concerned that the JFS are just Al Nusra in all but name. They are worried about any ramifications and rightly so when you consider that the last time a leader of a Middle Eastern country fell it became a hell hole of extremism.

With what we are seeing on our screens right now it would be pertinent to address the problem of overkill or the targeting of civilians as told by the West. We have already seen one of two videos express why this is happening including the video with ‘Syrian Girl‘. Human shields. The rebels claim they are the saviours of the people, revolutionaries even yet they hide in civilian held areas inviting fire from government forces. If Assad were to play tactfully and wait it out, the war would be over by next week in favour of the rebels, no, terrorists, and they do not play by the same rules. Here is where the questionable aspect of Assad comes into play. Collateral damage. It’s never right of course but what choice does he have? Target the rebels and risk the condemnation of the West or allow the rebels to succeed and over run the country. It’s not a good choice to have but one he would have to make, no matter how unpalatable.

Reverent Michael Nazir, Bishop of Rochdale having visited Syria understands this point and speaks in the following video. He raises the question of how Syria could possibly have chemical weapons when the US was meant to have confiscated Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile just last year.

The United States Peace Council sent representatives to Syria to investigate feeling on the ground. The video is long but well worth the listen during some down time.

US senator Richard Black also has some opinions on his experiences surrounding Syria.(warning: long video)

This is just the tip of the Iceberg and doesn’t begin to delve even deeper into the crisis. One allegation that many reading this will find too unpalatable to read is that the White Helmets, the humanitarians on the ground are not entirely who they say they are and that’s another blog post all together.

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Over one million people marched against the Iraq War. So many people said the war in Iraq would be futile and would create more problems in the Middle East. They said it would create a power vacuum which would result in far worse consequences than retaining Saddam Hussein as leader of Iraq. They were right. The Chilcotte Enquiry confirmed what everyone knew from the start and confirmed Tony Blair as the liar that everyone thought he was. The report came too late for the war in Syria but there is no gaurantee that it would have changed anything about what is happening now in the Middle East.

The Documentary Film maker Adam Curtis made a documentary short which many will know as ‘Oh Dearism’, in it he describes the world we live today as confusing by design, we are left in a permanent state of confusion by those in Power to ensure we never really know what’s going on. It couldn’t have been a more accurate picture especially when it comes to Syria.

The U.S was in Syria for over a year claiming to be there to fight ISIS but there was next to zero activity either on the ground or in the air. It was not until Russia joined forces with Assad and released footage of ISIS convoys and bases near oil installations that the U.S then decided to actively engage ISIS. They then also began to release their own footage of ISIS convoys and installations. Suddenly the US was regularly bombing ISIS targets. What had the U.S been doing for the those previous 12 months?

It transpired soon afterwards that the U.S had been funding, supplying and training rebel groups within Syria. These rebel groups in any other circumstances would be considered terror groups but we were told these were moderate groups, ones that were not hostile toward the West. To think that any arms would not reach the extreme groups such as Al Nusra is laughable. Iraq taught us that having western arms and infrastructure on the ground would likely at some point enter the hands of the wrong people such as when ISIS entered Syria using a convoy of U.S jeeps and trucks that had been left behind after the Iraq war. Now the ‘JfS’ a new group formed from the splitting of Al-Nusra in an attempt to Unite rebel groups will almost certainly see western arms enter the hands of former Al Nusra members.

They promised at the time that the supplying of arms to rebel groups would stop but it continued, openly, and today we know that the US has given air support to rebel groups fighting alongside Turkish troops in the latest fighting on the Turkish/Syrian border.

(Video below: 9th August US Peace Council representatives discuss their independent findings on what is happening on the ground in Syria. They agree. This is no civil war.)

Here we have another oddity. Turkey claims it is fighting ISIS but has also made threats to the YPG, the military arm of the Kurds. If the Kurds move into the area vacated by ISIS then Turkey will target them. On Syrian soil.

This has been backed by the U.S yet the YPG have been one of the few entities that had been defeating ISIS in the early days when the U.S and West had been sat twiddling their thumbs.

Russia themselves have created their own confusion. They stated they would be targeting ISIS in Syria but it quickly transpired that they were also targeting rebel groups aligned to the U.S. It was a recipe for a huge scale war between two world powers but now we know that despite backing different sides it appears that the US is willing to allow Russia to target the rebels provides it steers clear of U.S military interventions. At least for now. In the meantime Russia has been responsible for thousands of deaths in civilian areas. How many of those deaths can be attributed to Russia themselves or the actions of Rebels using the civilians as human shields may never be truly known.

In another development in the last week or so Iran confirmed that they have a presence on the ground in Syria. It had been long suspected but not confirmed officially.

What of Assad himself? It is easy to condemn him. A dictator who rules with an iron fist and crushes rebellion. There is little doubt that Assad is a tyrant and a bully and ultimately a murderer. That though would be all too simple, as we sit here in peaceful nations watching from the outside. Assad is in reality Gadaffi 2.0 and the parallels can be easily drawn.

When the uprising in Syria began it was crushed by Assad. No one on the face of it supports a dictator crushing their own people but what has transpired since that uprising is not a civil war. The rebel groups fighting Assad now are not civilians, the civilians have all left Syria or are trapped between waring factions. The rebel groups would be known here as terrorists. You would expect any leader of any country to attempt to kill off any rebel groups. The only difference is that Assad cares little for collateral damage.

In a region full of warring groups and factions however you have to wonder wether that collateral damage is a necessary evil to retain power. Saddam Hussein kept order also using an iron fist against rebellion and since he was deposed the region has exploded into chaos. It is this historical example as to why Assad may be keen to keep order in his own back yard.

Like Gadaffi, Assad’s rule has produced relative prosperity for some parts of his country. Shopping malls and job creation and ultimately wealth and some freedoms as well as universal healthcare and free education have been afforded to the people that wanted it or were prepared to tow the line of the laws of the land. This is the Syria he wants to preserve and as yet another historical example we can use Libya as an example of what happens when a dictator is removed from power. Instability and infighting. Yet the West wants to remove Assad from Syria. It’s almost as if the West has its own reason for removing these dictators beyond what we are told in the media. We are told it is to free the people of a dictator but when the evidence of success in removing dictators is thin on the ground you have to ask if there is another agenda at play here.

(Ice rink within a shopping mall in Damascus)

The people of these countries may have had it bad in many repspects under the rule of dictators but what comes after the or deposing seems more often than not, disaster for the people.

The West would do well to ask themselves if they think it preferable to have an uprising crushed with limited impact for the country and region as a whole or their country beset by fighting between multiple nations, groups and factions, all intent on having a say on who rules at the end. A country laid to waste and the region destabilised even further, because the latter is exactly what is happening and has happened in Syria.

It is too late now for the players in all of this to back out now and it seems set to continue for some time. Even after any supposed end to this war the ramifications will likely be felt for many decades to come.

One final historical example of this comes in the form of Iraq and Afghanistan. The hundreds and thousands of lives lost in both of these wars would appear to be little benefit to anyone. Iraq is still in politicial turmoil and ISIS remain on the ground. In Afghanistan the Taliban are trying to regain the ground they lost and Instability and bombings reign supreme. This doesn’t even begin to touch on what is happening in Yemen.

When all is said and done you just need to look at what is happening, not listen to what the media is telling you what is happening. Turkey is fighting it’s own battles on Syrian Soil, It shot down a Russian jet and has played the West for its own purposes in regards to the Refugee crisis whilst seemingly at times backing ISIS itself. After all, they spent 3 years doing nothing go tackle ISIS in Syria and only now as the YPG threatens to control part of the border with Turkey/Syria have Turkey intervened. Yet the West continues to back this particular dictator, which is exactly what Erdogan is, a dictator. As long as dictators are friends with the West that’s fine. So it appears. The US is backing terror groups, Russia has its own agenda, the YPG has its own agenda. Every player in Syria seems to have its own agenda and meanwhile the remaining civilians are caught in the crossfire.

Be assured of one thing though. Syria is not a civil war. It never was. This is a proxy war fought for each individuals own interests and as much as it pains me to say, Assad must remain in Power for now at least. Certainly therr must be no ‘unity government’, the West’s solution to all problems in the Middle East.

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On the Ten O’clock News last night the little child’s face flashed across the screen. Lonely but unmoved after being pulled from rubble after an apparent air strike on his home. No doubt in serious shock from the events of that day. His name is Omran.

The news likened it to past images used to highlight the horrors of war such as that of little Aylan Kurdi (below) washed ashore after a refugee boat capsized after fleeing war torn Syria.

The news went on to report that a new ‘coalition’ of forces had come together to break the government siege of Aleppo before the government had retaliated with yesterday’s devastating attack. This group was named JFS (Jabhat Fateh Al Sham) a break-away group from the Al Nusra Front originally part of Al Qaeda.

Al Nusra front are by Americas own admission a proscribed terror organisation and allegedly refused to arm, train and fund Al Nusra unlike many other so called moderate rebel groups and here is where the story becomes murky. During the Syrian war America has openly backed these moderate rebel groups but in reality these moderates are by any other definition insurgency sects and revolutionary groups or in the language of our own UK anti-terror authorities, ‘extremists’. Al Nusra however are one of the largest groups in the region and without their ranks being directly swelled by the money and arms of the US they had been overwhelmed by Assad’s army and supporters and in the process the main aim for the West was slipping away, namely the deposing of President Assad. The dictator was winning the war.

The News though was reporting JFS as almost revolutionary. Standing up to the rigor of war against the evil Assad. How though would the public ever accept that Al Nusra, a terror group, were the ‘good guys’? They wouldn’t. This is the exact reason for the “re-brand” and alleged “split” from Al Nusra to form a “coalition” of rebel groups, The JFS. The acceptable public face of the Al Nusra. Finally now the rebel groups are united and this time with the legitimacy of likely accepting western assistance via arms and money and no doubt intelligence resulting in events like the breaking of the Aleppo siege.

The new acceptable face of Al Nusra had a new spokesperson. An Australian educated, English speaking Media spokesperson of the JFS, Sheikh Mostafa Mahamed (below). He claims that the new group recognises what is and what is not acceptable to the wider public image of them and for the first time are willing to engage with western media. This would explain the sudden western media interest in the JFS.

Whilst the JFS attempt to liberate Aleppo and the West reports on a new innocent child victim pulled from the rubble thanks to the efforts of the JFS you would be forgiven for thinking that the JFS are the ‘good guys’. That’s certainly how the media appears to be portraying the situation.

Make no mistake, as has been reported from several sources, it is clear that the JFS is still the same group of people as before, anti western, terror led, still extreme. They are it seems willing to use the people of Aleppo as human shields and then display them to the West as victims of Assad’s barbarity. They are no friends of the West but it would suit the West for them to succeed and turn a blind eye to the JFS using western arms against the regime. The West also fails to report on the barrage of rockets being sent into Western Aleppo by the Rebels and the victims there including a little girl known as Rim.

This blog is vehemently opposed to Western intervention in the Middle East especially when it comes to the deposing of leaders so it’s not for us to intervene against any foreign internal terror groups but likewise we should not back them to our own ends and the Western public here appears to be being hoodwinked into viewing the JFS as somehow ‘on our side’ but to what end? Could it be that the land is being laid for further western interventions in Syria? Because a friendly face in Syria may swing public opinion especially if an innocent face is dragged across our screens bloodied and dazed.

As ever the innocent are caught in the middle and we can only hope that something changes the course of history but for now the battles rage but we should be clear, there are no ‘good guys’ in this bloody war.

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All roads lead here. There are growing signs that a ground offensive in Syria is very near and the ground work to ensure the public is on-side is being laid in the media.

Today Sky News released a report that is written in a way unlike anything before it. Consider that the media has always shown Syria and its leader Assad in a negative light, the instigator, the one that must go above all else, the dictator that massacres his own people.

The report states: “The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 100 rebel fighters have been killed in the government offensive launched (on Aleppo) on Monday.”

“More than 60 regime troops have also died in the operation, which has been backed by Russian airstrikes.

“..In the footage, fighters and residents waved the Syrian and Hezbollah flags, and some chanted pro-regime slogans, including “God, Syria, Bashar and nothing else,” in reference to Syrian president Bashar al Assad.”

“The two villages had been under attack by rebels since 2012 and reaching them has been a goal of the government, which has also sought to cut off key rebel supply routes into Aleppo.”

The report went to to talk of the Syrian Army in a positive light which clearly unusual. There is no suggestion that the reports of the crowds cheering their liberation are false. The article does not even try to refute this.

(It should be noted that we first saw this article around 14.00 hours today near to the time this article was released. Since then the article has been updated at around 16.00 hours and it does appear to have been watered down somewhat in its original positivity towards Assad. However without visual proof of this it is hard for us to show you or prove this, all the same the article is still largely positive with the exception of a few seemingly added ‘comments’ from Turkey and the U.S.)

The question initially arose “why would mainstream media begin reporting on Assad in a positive light?”

Had America and its allies decided that backing Assad now will bring an end to the refugee crisis? Will it bring an end to the war far more quickly? It would, but then what’s in it for the US and its allies? After more than a year of arming and backing the rebels it would look odd now to start backing Assad. So how would you start supporting the regime in Syria without losing face?

Cue stories in the mainstream media of Syrian army success stories. Show them as liberators, then when the West starts backing the Syrian army the public will support the move and forget all about siding with the Rebels.

But then something else came to light on reading further news coverage today. All signs point to a ground invasion, yes it’s been suggested for a while but this may be the closest we have come to it being a reality. The public have to be on-side with a ground offensive. Goverenments can’t afford for their people to second guess a ground invasion, after all certainly with the UK government it’s what people had been calling for instead of air strikes. David Cameron though had said that he would not send troops into Syria, that it would be left to regional forces. Well, he said Rebel forces but I think even he now recognises that it’s not going to happen with the collapse of the peace talks in Geneva. Perhaps a ground offensive by Western troops will be the only option but how to get around the public concern?

Build a narrative. Build a picture that actually shows the West supporting Assad in his fight against the rebels and ISIL forces.

The heat has been turned up to resolve the crisis in Syria with the news today that Libya is fast becoming a recruiting ground for ISIL forces with estimated insurgents on the rise. Libya in case you hadn’t noticed has gone backwards in recent days and the fears are that there will after all be no peaceful solution to Libya.

It is unclear though whether Turkey would be fighting against ISIL, Rebel forces the Syrian Army or Kurdish forces or a mix of all of them. Turkey is said to be outraged that the Syrian Army have displaced more Syrians from Aleppo today of which 70,000 are thought to be headed towards the Turkish border. Turkey though has been accused of allowing ISIL fighters safe passage via the key supply line between it and Aleppo, the very town that was liberated by the Syrian Army today.

So what is Turkeys intention? Russia appears concerned.

Of course Turkey is meant to be within NATO and part of the coalition forces, is Turkey about to go off script perhaps with the help of Saudi Arabia? Will the ground offensive be in the name of freeing towns from ISIL and in the process getting Russia on board?

Or has a secret deal already been prepared in that the coalition will help liberate Syria from Rebel forces in exchange for Assad stepping down afterwards. This would allow all parties to save their reputations and the coalition getting exactly what they wanted, regime change.

There are so many variables it is hard to pin point exactly how this will pan out but one thing is fairly certain, the ground offensive is very near and the narrative in the press has now changed.

The report via the BBC at the link below gives details on civilians starving and besieged by various groups in various locations in Syria.
In one city around 200,000 are besieged by ISIS and in various other towns thousands of civilians are held by Al Nusra. In one other city another 200,000 are besieged by government forces which is a stronghold for rebel groups.

Whilst the region waits for more peace talks the fighting continues. The Western backed rebels hold onto civilian cities which is helping to encourage the Syrian army to keep the cities besieged.

It would be easy to condemn the Syrian government for allowing the people to starve and no doubt they are culpable in many ways, we must though suspect that the rebel groups would benefit from ensuring no aid got through in any case. All the whilst people suffer and it’s the Syrian army doing the attacking, the more sympathy the rebels will gain.

There has been anecdotal evidence to suggest that the rebels have in some cases used civilians as human shields. It wouldn’t be a great leap to imagine this may indeed be happening.

What is Assad to do? Leader of the nation and faced with rebel groups attacking his forces from within the civilian population. Whilst there is no doubt that Assad could and should do more to help the civilians and should answer for any war crimes that may have been committed it’s also important to realise that he can’t just ‘leave it’ and allow the rebels free reign. Would any other president of any other nation? Assad also knows that these rebels are Western backed. It’s an invasion by any other name.

This is why it’s important to leave revolutions and uprisings to the people of individual nations. Foreign interference muddies the waters and no longer makes it about revolution but instead makes it something far more sinister.

This is by no means a defence of Assad but more of a way to ask you to not take what the media says at face value.

Anyone who has seen the film ‘Bitter Lake’ will contest to the reality that what we are seeing is a narrative, again, of plain and simple ‘good vs bad’ just like in Aghanistan when the complexity of the situation makes it anything but ‘good Vs bad’.

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The question of Syria is hugely complicated. No one is pretending it isn’t. Least of all us.

The world is a stage and with so many players and so much deceit it’s hard to know who the villains and heroes of the piece are.

We won’t go into who is who in this unfolding drama as likely you already know. Everyone has their good and bad guys and gals.

It was announced yesterday that David Cameron is to spend £12billion on 138 stealth fighter jets. – In an interview with The Sunday Times, George Osborne said the investment will ensure the UK has the world’s second most potent carrier strike force after the United States, with the resources to tackle IS and other extremist groups for a generation. – That sounds to us like the government honestly believes that Bombing other countries is the answer to all our problems.

Wether you do or don’t isn’t the only issue. Cameron, with £12bn in cuts to welfare has decided that Bombing other countries is far more important than supporting the most vulnerable in this country and what about the refugees from Syria? Cameron has spent over £1Billion to help them, since 2011 that is and we are second largest contributors for aid to Syrian refugees. Just think about what’s needed then ask yourself if £1billion in 5 years enough? When you weigh up £12billion for 138 war planes that would likely be Bombing Syria, it kind of puts things into perspective.

Within a week or two Cameron will be calling for the vote on airstrikes in Syria and its this moment that will define the Labour Party and may well be the first act that truely impacts one way or another what happens to Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party.

Please see the important and relevant links at the end of this article.

Corbyn was ushered in by the public as leader on a message of hope, change, peace, fairness and anti austerity. If Corbyn fails to get his party onto the same hymn sheet as himself it may just turn out to be the beginning of the end for Labour under Jeremy Corbyn and may even prove to be the end of Labour as a party of any significance. Of course Corbyn may well yet vote in favour of airstrikes in Syria. Stranger things have happened.

There are PLP members who have the daggers out for Corbyn and who would put it past them to vote against Corbyn just to spite him.

He likely can’t win. Should he win the vote the right wing press will go to town on him with headlines like “Corbyn betrays his country” and if he loses the vote then we will likely see headlines such as “Labour in Chaos as MP’s rebel”.

Regardless of that however Corbyn’s supporters should unite behind him screaming the message loud and clear. No more bombs in Syria. We know from history that Bombing terrorists is a short fix at best. Today’s moderate terrorists are tomorrow’s hardliners. The Conservatives would argue that ISIL are the most deadly terrorist organisation in history. No. Boko Haram are. They have killed more people than ISIS and are also crossing borders in Africa but we don’t see the same level of effort to rid the world of that disease, but then they are not attacking the West. Yet.

So what can Corbyn’s supporters do? Well it’s out of their hands in terms of how the Labour MP’s vote but they can help undecided members of the public see Corbyn in a good light and see Syria as a country that needs help. Not Bombs. Indiscriminate in nature and destructive that they are.

It’s not just innocent victims we should be concerned about after all. It’s the infrastructure, the fact we have been making things worse by arming moderate rebels, the risk of alienating yet more Middle Eastern people. The risk of an international war breaking out between rival nations… over Syria itself. With far-right rhetoric coming to the fore all across Europe, now more than ever the anti war movement needs its voice to be louder than ever. United.

Stop the War has a petition running that urgently needs a quick signature from you and the social media campaign ‘Black out for Syria’ needs your backing.

We have witnessed some horrifying videos of atrocities in Syria committed by all sides. We blame governments, especially western governments for their ineptitude and failing to learn from past mistakes but ultimately the people that suffer the most are innocents civilians and particularly children who don’t even know what is going on.

If nothing else, it’s clear that Bombs are going to add to that misery. #blackoutforsyria

***OVERALL MESSAGE***

Whatever your position on the Syrian crisis we can all agree on one thing, Syria is a mess. Syria is a pawn for the political players. It’s time we sent a message via social media that instead of supporting one atrocity over another or ‘choosing sides’ or deciding how many Bombs to drop we should all stand in unity and say to our governments no more suffering. No more bombs. No more revenge. No more proxy wars. No more arming so called moderate groups. We want transparency and openness. #blackoutforsyria

***WHAT TO DO***

Please join us and help start something by blacking out your profile photo and cover photo for one week starting Monday 23rd November until 30th November. You can start now and end whenever you like but please black out for that week at least. #blackoutforsyria